Heartfelt Thanks!

I'm so glad you stopped by today.

I am happy to share a colorful card with you today

to say 'Thank You' to teachers everywhere !

Yes . . . The Twinery is sharing all kinds of crafting goodness

this week in honor of educators.  

 

Our design team will be

sharing both cards & gifts using fun & fabulous baker's twine

in hopes of inspiring you to create something for the teacher in your life.

With four grandsons ranging from 4th grade to pre-school, I have had

the pleasure of making cards for their teachers for Christmas

 and the end of the school year.

I am definitely a card maker at heart & did I have fun putting

this card together !  I created the tag first and layered from there.

Both the tag & card base have washi tape from Freckled Fawn.

These alphabets remind me so much of grade school

[which was WAY too long ago]

I love putting a whole bunch of baker's twine together for

a tag 'tassel' and for this one, I used:

Charcoal, Mandarin, Buttercream, Marigold and the brand new

Rainbow Teal Shimmer.

All of these can be found over in The Twinery Store.

I used stickers from SRM for the sentiment & fun polka dots,

a fun pencil embellishment (which I've had for years)

and the flower is from Prima.

 

I hope you will stop by The Twinery blog this week and enjoy

the projects our talented designers have to share.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today !

 

 

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Embellishments: washi tape from Freckled Fawn,

pencil button by Dress it Up, stickers from SRM Stickers

flower from Prima, all baker's twine from The Twinery

Zva Creative April Design Team Blog Hop

Zva Creative and my fellow Design Team members welcome you to our April blog hop! We are excited about month's hop and look forward to sharing our new work with you!

Today's Blog Hop begins at Zva Creative's Facebook Page! Be sure head on over to check it out! You will also find a complete list of all the participating blogs there (in case there is a glitch along the way). 

As you know, Zva offers many beautiful color groupings for pearls, flowers and crystals.  If you like what you see along the hop you can find a list of stores and online retailers that sell Zva HERE.

Today I am featuring Zva's brand new red crystal flourishes
and mini-gem flowers.
I've had a beautiful project-life 'style' paper pack
from Recollections that I have been looking forward
to breaking into.  It's called 'Beautiful Life'
and I thought it worked perfectly with this flourish.
I simply layered each piece of cardstock, added
the journal card & added my gems.
The mini white roses are also from Zva.

If you would like to play along with our design team, just follow along the blog path.  I am linking to one of the Zva designers and that designer is linking to the next and so on. Be prepared to be inspired along the way!

The Blog Hop starts today, April 29^th and runs through midnight US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, April 30^th 

***Prizes***

Hidden on FIVE of the designer's blogs is a 

Zva Creative prize package! 

Winners will be randomly chosen after the hop is over. All you need to do is leave a comment on this Blog Hop post... you do not need to leave a comment on each and every designer's blog post to qualify. 

However, the more times you comment along the blog hop path, 

the more chances you will have to win.

The 5 winners will be announced on Wednesday, May 1st

on Zva Creative's Facebook Page.  

We will do our best to notify each winner, but it's best if you can pop in to Zva's blog on Wednesday to see if you are a winner!

We also thought it would be more fun to add even more chances to win our blog hop prize!  To increase your chances of winning:

* Comment to let us know that you posted on your Facebook page about our hop (link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you "tweeted" about our hop 

(link to any of the blog hop posts)

* Comment to let us know that you asked your local store to carry Zva creative products.  If they already do, that's fantastic, maybe you can suggest other products that they don't carry.

*Hop over to Zva's facebook page and "like" our page or leave a comment there to tell us that you stopped by if you already like follow us there!

Mark your calendar to join us again on 

May 27^th for our next Zva blog hop!

 The blog hop begins at the Zva Creative FB Page

Your next stop is Nicole Martel's blog

Project Recipe:

Cardstock: Patina flower embossed by Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Beautiful Life by Recollections

Embellishments: red gems flourish {CR-06CA-107}
mini flower gems {CRW-06CA-153}
mini flowers in white {FLBK-03CB-101}

from Zva Creative

A { Colorful } Challenge

It's quite a colorful day here at The Open Window

as we present a brand new challenge over at

This week, we are using the colors

Grass ... Rose Petal ... Hibiscus

I have been hanging on to a bunch of newer embellishments

from BasicGrey, including the 'Hey Girl' collection and I knew

this hanging banner would be perfect for these colors.

I grabbed some washi tape from Freckled Fawn & Recollections

to create a simple pattern on the base panel and brought

it all together with the sweet flower from Prima.

I find myself apologizing with nearly every post

for the poor lighting in my photos.  Yes, I have a light tent.

The problem is my creative space is getting smaller by the day

and I've not had room to put it back up, so I have to fiddle with

the editing of my photos more and more.

I love this card (I must admit) but the photos do nothing for it.

On a GREAT note . . .

You know I love The Twinery and we are happy to

be providing a prize from this fabby baker's twine company.

Make sure you get over to see all the yummy new

'Metallic Shimmer' twines !

I'll see YOU in The Play Date Cafe !

Project Recipe:

 Patterned Paper & Banner Embellishment: Hey Girl by BasicGrey
Embellishments: washi tape from Freckled Fawn & Recollections

flower from Prima, pearls from Recollections

Spring Wishes with The Twinery & Imaginisce

Happy Monday and welcome to The Open Window !

It's a another inspirational week as I get to be a part of

The folks over at Imaginisce sent out a terrific collection

to our designers and I really had fun pairing it with the

baker's twine from The Twinery.

I'm hoping you came by way of my teammate

Amy Crockett's blog

If not, you can find all the details & prizes by visiting

The Twinery blog

There are only 6-8 blogs each day and you simply

visit each day, check out the amazing inspiration from

each designer, leave a comment and you'll be in the

running for amazing prizes !

More on that in a sec . . .

Can you just feel the breezes blowin' on this card ?

As soon as I saw this bubble wand, I knew I wanted to share all kinds

of color from The Twinery, so I grabbed a couple of the brand new

Shimmer Twines and went to town !

I also added a little

I love the 'Play All Day' collection from Imaginisce.

It includes fun confetti paper & the clear stamp 'Bubble Wand'

along with the Sticker Stackers die cut from the 

'Childhood Memories' collection.

The stamped sentiment is from Inspired Inc.

To give the bubbles a little 'pizzazz' I used Stickles.

Take a look at these prizes . . .

Winner's Choice of THREE SPOOLS

{ up to $48 retail value }

 { $48 retail value }

I hope you'll check out all of the fabulous new

baker's twine recently released from The Twinery

and be a part of this inspirational week with Imaginisce !

Make sure you leave a quick comment before you go

to be eligible for the prizes
and don't forget to check

out The Twinery blog for 

ADDITIONAL WAYS TO WIN !

The next designer from The Twinery is . . .

Sarah Andreotti's blog

Have a great day !

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Play All Day by Imaginisce

Stamps: Bubble Wand by Imaginisce

Sentiment by Inspired Inc

Embellishments: baker's twine in Blue & Red Shimmer & Honeydew

all from The Twinery

Childhood Memories Sticker Stacker die from Imaginisce

Stardust & Waterfall Stickles by Ranger

You Are Never Alone

Happy Sunday !

I'm just popping in today with a card I recently made

to { hopefully } bring a smile to my mom.

I recently shared that she was diagnosed with lung cancer

and while she is going through treatment, I want to

make sure she knows how much I love her

and admire her strength.

 

She does read my blog from time to time, so hopefully

she will not 'peek in' for a few days so I can

make sure this card gets to her : )

 My mom has loved gardening since I was in high school.

She turned most of our backyard into the most

beautiful flower garden over 30 years ago and to this day, still has

the most beautiful blooms from Spring to Fall around

her entire condo.

 

I recently picked up these fabby vellum pages by Heidi Grace

and was so anxious to use them.

I used my Lacey Circle die from Spellbinders to create the frame

and placed it on top of yellow cardstock so the design

would stand out more.

I also created the base using the Swiss Dot EF from Cuttlebug.

The sentiment is from a beautiful set called 'Inspired by Audrey'

designed by Karen Baker for The Craft's Meow.

I simply embellished the flowers & umbrella with pearls & gems.

It's important she knows this sentiment is true and I hope

she enjoys it once she receives it.

 

Don't forget. . .

There's a terrific color challenge going on over at

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I'll be back on Monday with a very special event

with The Twinery and Imaginisce !

Project Recipe:

 Cardstock: Recollections & Bazzill

Vellum: Sunshowers Quotes by Heidi Grace
Stamps: Inspired by Audrey by The Craft's Meow

Tools:  Lacey Circles die by Spellbinders

Lg Swiss Dot EF by Cuttlebug, Big Shot Embellishments: gems from K&Company

pearls from Recollections

For my Mother

For The Play Date Cafe Color Challenge
CLICK HERE

Welcome back to The Open Window !

You know I love being the DT Coordinator over at

and today, we are continuing our

'No Release' Celebration with terrific projects

by our team.  That's right !  We typically have a new release

at this time of the month, but TCM is gearing up for an

amazing new release in May, so we are sharing projects

with various themes this week and along with that,

you can SAVE LOTS OF MONEY because

every stamp set is 21% off !!!

Just enter the code

April21

at checkout to get your discount !

Today's theme is 'Mothers' and with every second I spent

on this card, I thought of my mom.

Just a few short weeks ago, she was diagnosed with lung cancer

and it's been a sad, but hopeful time.

The feature set I've used from TCM is called 'Hope Blooms'

How inspired . . .

The sentiment set is called 'Cherished'

Again ... so inspired . . .

I sure hope you will join us this week for lots of inspiration

and of course, you can save 21% on your order.

You have until Sunday, April 21st to use this very RARE DISCOUNT !

Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to hearing from you.

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Hootenanny by My Mind's Eye
Stamps: Hope Blooms & Cherished by The Craft's Meow

Embellishments: gems from Recollections

Bold & Beautiful

HELLO ! ! !

I'm so glad to be back at The Open Window !

If you're one of my Facebook friends, you may know that

my house has been running rampant with Influenza B.

Paul & I both had the pleasure of having it at the very

same time, so for the past couple weeks, it has

been quite the time here.

We are both feeling much better, but it has knocked

us for a loop and we've been slow to do ANYthing !

I am so happy to be here to share this week's challenge

over at

This week's colors are . . .

Hot Pink...Shadow...Lightning Yellow 

Each of our designers is featuring stamps from our sponsor

CAS-ual Fridays and I was really inspired to use the set

'Truth Is' with these colors.

I simply took my inkpad 'direct to paper', then stamped

each image on top.

I first saw this technique done by UK designer

Paula Whittaker, back when I first began my blog.

You can see my very first card using this technique

by clicking HERE

{it's from one of my favorite projects of 2009}

 I hope you will play along with us over in The Cafe.

The colors are vibrant & fun and our sponsor is terrific !

Hope you will say hello . . . I'd love to know you came by : )

Project Recipe:
Stamps: Truth Is by CAS-ual Fridays

Embellishments: gems from Recollections
Ink: Bubblegum & Papaya by A Muse Studio

On the Record with Jenni Bowlin Studio

Hello and welcome in !

It's time for another beautiful color challenge over at

This week, we are using focusing on 'natural' colors with

Cappuccino . . . Slate . . . Burlap

I took a little walk down memory lane as I created this card.

When I was growing up, my dad owned his own fence company.

I can barely remember a time when he wasn't putting in fences

somewhere.  In fact, I am fairly certain I can still remember

all the steps to installing a chain link fence !

 This was beFORE computers, so my dad would hand-write all of his

estimates & bills of sale.  These stamps from Jenni Bowlin Studio

{this week's sponsor} were just perfect to re-create what I

used to see on his office desk.

I used this week's colors by creating an 'inked' border and underneath

that, I used the 'Notebook Edge' punch from EK Success.

On top of that, a little 'Charcoal' baker's twine from The Twinery.

The ledger cover has was over-stamped onto washi tape from MME.

On the ledger sheets, I wrote in a few of the entries I would

see on his sheets, such as the cost of materials, labor & estimates.

I thought it would be fun to include the birth dates of 

my daughter Mallory (1984) and son Alex (1988) 

as the due dates for payments/discounts.

We had a lot of fun this week creating projects using stamp sets from

Jenni Bowlin Studio.  They are this week's sponsor of the challenge.

We have a super surprise for you over there as well !

A variety of the JBS Design Team have joined in the inspiration

and have created some of the most beautiful projects

to inspire you to play this week.

I'm so glad you could stop by !

Please say hello before you go  : )

Project Recipe:

Patterned Paper: Indie Chic by My Mind's Eye

Stamps: Ledger by Jenni Bowlin Studio

Embellishments: washi tape by My Mind's Eye, brads by Recollections

 baker's twine in Charcoal & Natural from The Twinery

Tools: Notebook border punch by EK Success